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How often to hill potatoes

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bswails Joined: 3/27/2009 Location: Nebraska Posts: 22	Posted: May/19/2009 6:09 PM PST Hi all, Last night I hilled up my potatoes for the second time. I hilled them up using a couple year old compost mixed with some horse manure and left about four inches of green above ground. Much to my surprise when I got home from work today I see that they have already grown several more inches. I don't have much experience with potatoes, they are Yukon Golds. How many times should I hill them and how do I know when to dig up the spuds? Attachments: Quote \| Reply \| Report

mudpies Joined: 3/09/2009 Location: south central Ontario Posts: 376	Posted: May/19/2009 6:41 PM PST The purpose of hilling up potatoes is to keep them from poking through the soil and getting 'sunburned'. Therefore, the frequency will depend to a large extent on the depth you planted them. Your crop of potatoes grow above the seed potato. I'm a lazy gardener and I have sandy loam, so I dig a trench and plant my spuds a foot into the ground. I create a ridge of soil over the row as I cover them. I never have to hill them up later. In heavier soils, of course, it's too difficult to plant that deep. Potatoes planted only a few inches from the surface will need to be hilled up more frequently. If you see a spud poking its nose through the soil, you really need to drag more earth over all the potatoes in your garden. I love new potatoes, so I dig into a hill as soon as I think they're ready. If I find they are, I continue digging hills as I need them through the summer. If I find I've dug too early, I cover them back up and wait a while before trying again. As summer wears on, the plants begin to fade and I dig the remainder of my spuds and put them into the cold cellar for the winter. I'm still eating last year's crop. Hope this helps. Quote \| Reply \| Report

bswails Joined: 3/27/2009 Location: Nebraska Posts: 22	Posted: May/19/2009 7:39 PM PST Thanks mudpies that helped a lot. Does hilling promote the growth of more potatoes? In other words if I keep hilling will more potatoes sprout from the stocks I cover? I did a lot of work to my garden last fall. Prior to that it was very heavy clay and very hard to grow any type of rooting veggies. I litterally dug down about a foot and replaced the heavy clay soil with compost. This spring I tilled it several times and added a few pounds of bone beal and blood meal. I'm thinking I planted my seed potatoes around six inches deep and I bet I have 18 inches of hill around each plant now. Just wondering if more hilling will produce more spuds. I have 7 mouths to feed so I will take all I can get ;-) Quote \| Reply \| Report

mudpies Joined: 3/09/2009 Location: south central Ontario Posts: 376	Posted: May/20/2009 6:01 AM PST I'm afraid not, kid. The number of spuds each plant produces depends on a number of factors: nutrients (you should have lots, given the addition of compost), moisture, cultivar (What kind did you plant?), etc. Hilling them up simply prevents sunburn. Quote \| Reply \| Report

mudpies Joined: 3/09/2009 Location: south central Ontario Posts: 376	Posted: May/20/2009 6:05 AM PST I forgot to tell you not to use any more compost or manure this year. Sometimes it can become too much of a good thing and the plant concentrates its energy on producing foliage instead of potatoes. Quote \| Reply \| Report

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